1. You are viewing our forum as a guest. For full access please Register. WindowsBBS.com is completely free, paid for by advertisers and donations.

Move system files from one drive to another on the same computer

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by ggreg, 2006/08/05.

  1. 2006/08/05
    ggreg

    ggreg Inactive Thread Starter

    Joined:
    2006/01/26
    Messages:
    43
    Likes Received:
    0
    Hello everyone, I've come across a little problem... Well actually my mother did and she came to me for help and I didn't have the answer.

    She has two hard drives on her system, the c drive which is dramatically running out of space and a d drive which is overflowing with room over 114 gigs worth.

    the system runs off the c drive, but continues to give her the running out of memory warnings. Is it possible for her to make the d drive her main drive without having to open the casing? And if she does will the computer have difficulties finding necessary system files and operating paths?

    What she really wants is to remove or completely "go around" the c drive and move everything to the larger drive.
     
  2. 2006/08/05
    surferdude2

    surferdude2 Inactive

    Joined:
    2004/07/04
    Messages:
    4,009
    Likes Received:
    23
    There are many ways to do that. I have used XXCLONE with good results. It's free for the basic version and very user friendly. You must understand that it will delete any data on the target volume so you may want to backup any important data to some other media. It will give you a bootable clone of the source volume and allow you to boot either volume. There will be no path problem when booting the clone since it will be assigned the C: designation automatically when you boot to it and source drive will then be tagged as the D: drive. With some simple editing of the boot.ini file, you can eliminate the boot choice and boot the bigger drive by default. I think this would be the easiest way to do what your mother wants without opening the box.

    If you later want to make it a conventional configuration, it would be fairly simple to open the box and transpose the drive cables. If you never want to do that, that would be fine too. It's quite acceptable to boot the clone and even delete the windows folder of the source drive if you so choose.
     

  3. to hide this advert.

  4. 2006/08/05
    ggreg

    ggreg Inactive Thread Starter

    Joined:
    2006/01/26
    Messages:
    43
    Likes Received:
    0
    wow! it seems that I may just have to tell her to wait until I can gget over there and switch out the drives manually. that seems like a lot to try and explain to her and have her try to run on her own. A lot of the jargan may escape her understanding.

    Is the program easy enough to use for the unexperienced user?
     
  5. 2006/08/06
    sorinso

    sorinso Inactive

    Joined:
    2003/10/27
    Messages:
    65
    Likes Received:
    0
    Overkilll, maybe?

    Hi, ggreg.

    I wonder if there's a bit of an overkill. I think you should check why there's no room on C. Maybe some work files that take a lot of space and can be moved ( folders like My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, Outlook's PST files and so on); maybe you can move the PageFile file to the D: drive; maybe some cleaning (OS temporary files, Internet Temporary Files folder, and such) will be enough.

    Worth a try before trying to mess with moving the system files.

    Good luck.
     
  6. 2006/08/06
    ggreg

    ggreg Inactive Thread Starter

    Joined:
    2006/01/26
    Messages:
    43
    Likes Received:
    0
    I think that you may understand why I may be a little stand offish towards an "overhaul" and towards adding more software to an already crowded system.

    This is my mother's system that we're talking about and I don't want her stuck with trying to get a hold of me in order to figure out what's going on. She is a self-starter just like me and likes to know about what she's doing.

    I will look at this suggestion first. I can move all non-system files and move them to the d drive and reserve the c drive for operating system files only. This is what you are suggesting right?
     

Share This Page

  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.